29 in between
by multiply014
Summary: 29 short fics/drabbles for 31 Days of CoAi, from 4/2-4/30 on Tumblr [CoAi] [ShinShi]
1. 4-2

4/2: "shiho and shinichi after the downfall of org. yunno how shinichi returns to his life and shiho has no one but shinichi even after getting back to his normal life tries his best to make shiho feel home" _(from Angel-Chan234)_

* * *

To say that Shinichi Kudo knows many things is a gross understatement. He's an undisputed genius: in brain power, without even accounting for his excellent memory, and, well, in everything else—he's a gifted athlete and a musician with perfect pitch, though admittedly not the best vocalist.

He's also a whiz in a number of languages, and he understands a multitude of the unsaid. From his own experience, he's even a master in listening to the echoes of an empty home.

So when one Miyano Shiho attempts to blow off a group dinner to stay at home to lock herself up in her lab, Shinichi follows.

When she unknowingly cooks for two, Shinichi wordlessly takes the other share.

When she wakes up in the middle of the night, Shinichi heats two cups of chocolate.

When she stays up, Shinichi grabs a book and settles in the spot he's claimed.

And when she shakes as she hides her tears, Shinichi holds her.


	2. 4-3

4/3: Soulmates: the first time they meet, a red thread appears

* * *

The first time Kudo Shinichi met Miyano Shiho, Edogawa Conan met Haibara Ai. He watched her move from the front of the class to the seat beside him, giving him just a single word of greeting, barely glancing or sparing a thought at anyone else.

That was how he knew they weren't soulmates.

Because in this world, the moment two people who had somehow been deigned to be two parts of a soul—that is, soulmates—meet, a red thread would appear to the two of them, connecting them together. At least, that's what the rumors say.

He hadn't seen it then.

So, they weren't.

Truthfully, he hadn't even considered it. Why would he when he first met her as an elementary school kid with an attitude?

When Shinichi felt this strange tug at certain moments, he chucked it all to his detective instincts. It made him feel heady during the hotel case, though during the train station case, it tapered into an unsettling feeling instead. Since then, he had felt it only once more during the case in the cabin in the campsite, and it had been stronger than any moment before.

But _right now_, at the exact moment he locked eyes with her, the pull is so indescribable that it shocked his mind into instantaneously putting the pieces together, ending his mental flashback with a side-by-side freeze-frame of the moment Edogawa Conan first met Haibara Ai in Teitan Elementary's Class 1-B, and the moment Edogawa Conan first met Miyano Shiho at the campgrounds in Gunma.

And _right now_ it all makes sense.

Because he can clearly see the red thread tied on his pinky to hers _right now_, the first time _Kudo Shinichi_ meets _Miyano Shiho_.


	3. 4-4

4/4: Ringtone

* * *

Yoko Okino's new song plays on Shinichi Kudo's phone. Technically, it's Conan's phone, but, eh, semantics, semantics. He answers it in a beat.

When the call drops, he notices Ran looking at him funny, so he asks why.

"Ehh, so Conan-kun _likes_ Yoko-chan, huh?"

"_No!_" _Just no!_ It's just a certain _84-year-old_ woman is always messing with his phone and setting her damned individual ringtone back!

Shinichi sighs as he sets it back to its rightful ringtone, Caprice No. 13.

A few days later, Ayumi calls him. Shinichi is perplexed and alarmed at the same time. When he answers, it's a relief to know it was just her checking up on their plans this coming camping trip.

After the call, he spots Ran giggling into her hand, and immediately thinks back to a few days ago.

… His default ringtone is _normal_, isn't it? It's a classic, even! Duetto!

So when he asks Ran, and Ran says, "So... Conan-kun _and_ Ayumi-chan, huh? You even set a special ringtone _just for her_! How romantic!" he's stumped.

_A special ringtone? Romantic? Wait, what?!_


	4. 4-5

4/5: Stakeout

* * *

"What? He turned himself in?! And you got him in cuffs... and he _confessed_?" A certain detective with a cowlick drooping just a little bit lower than usual ended the call with a thanks and a sigh. The brunette beside him closes her eyes and lets out a sigh.

"So, what do we do now?" she asks, her chin resting on her hand as the tension of the chase leaves her. She lazily stares out the car window, watching the people come and go the entrance of Tropical Land. Two in particular catch her eye: a middle-schooler girl leaving hand-in-hand with a younger girl holding a stuffed toy bear, both wearing bright grins on their faces.

She allows herself a smile, just for a while, before she transforms it into a smirk as she turns to Shinichi, "I mean, _after_ you're done sulking, what do we do?"

"I am _not_ sulking," he denies with a pout. In a moment, though, he grins, and Shiho knows whatever he's planning wouldn't be anything good even before he says, "Anyway, we're already here, so we might as well go in… since you seem so interested in doing so."

She scoffs and says, "I am _not_ interested." She continues, not looking at him anymore, "It just took so long for you to get over your tantrum I had to entertain myself with the view."

"You don't have to deny it _that_ hard. Come on, let's go!" He chuckles and leaves the car, lightly shaking his head. He goes over to Shiho's side and opens the door for her. When she doesn't budge, he takes her by the hand.

Contrary to Shiho's expectations, the day passes by without as much as a whiff of mystery nor sinister plots nor dead bodies. Shinichi's phone hadn't even rung once, despite their involvement in the ongoing investigation that just abruptly ended.

More importantly, Shiho finds herself thinking that it's really been a while since she's had this much fun, and to do so in an amusement park, with _Shinichi_, of all people, _today_, of all days, is something she really did not expect.

She also didn't expect Shinichi to be such an expert in carnival games, and to beat her in the shooting game! She tells herself nostalgia is a big enough distraction and handicap, and, well, it doesn't really matter since he handed over the big teddy bear prize to her anyway.

Smiling that smile she seemingly reserves, she plays with the hands of the toy bear to the amusement of Shinichi. And Shiho, reliving the years that seem so far away now, quietly, in the deepest, most secret place in her heart, greets herself a happy birthday.

And, even if she didn't quite manage to hear it, Shinichi, too, greets her the same.


	5. 4-6

4/6: Want

* * *

She wanted.

And that was the problem.

Never let it be said that the Organisation had taught her to want.

Never let it be said that the Organisation had _allowed_ her to want.

For 18 years, she had thought she didn't, she wouldn't. But that was a lie, to everyone, to _herself_, because she _knew_ she wanted. To be like her sister. To be with her sister. To be free.

And so, she was punished.

After that was eternity. Or at least, it felt like it. Because she knows she has changed miles away from the her of the past. And she would have laughed at the absurdity of the thought had she been told a year ago that she would be like _this_, that she would be allowed _this_.

This warmth. This happiness.

Sherry would have said, it would take forever, hers and countless others', to be _this_.

Haibara Ai can only say in return, it _did_, and she _is_ now an eternity away.

But though she may have shed Sherry and donned Haibara Ai, she remains Miyano Shiho.

And Miyano Shiho wants. To be like _someone_. To be with _someone_. An eternity _with_.

She can't say. She'll be punished. And so, Miyano Shiho lies. Because Miyano Shiho lies. Even though Miyano Shiho knows. Because Miyano Shiho knows.

_Still_, she wanted.

And that is the problem.


	6. 4-7

4/7: Castle

* * *

There was once a princess called Sherry in a kingdom far, far away.

"Ran-san, when I become queen, I'll abolish all these ridiculous traditions and allow women to become knights, too. You'll be the first woman knight, and I will be the one to knight you—isn't that a great future?"

"Shi-_Princess!_ You can't—"

"_Shiho-chan_. Call me that. You've always called me that."

"Princess, I'm not allowed to—"

"We're alone, anyway, so don't—"

Three knocks in quick succession sound out, and the door to Sherry's quarters opens. A young man in black robes and chainmail stands straight, his eyes resolutely gazing forward in accordance to perfect etiquette. Aside from his steely blue eyes, the only vibrant color in his person was the pendant hanging from a plain silver chain around his neck, bearing the sign of Sherry—a white rose that bled red at its petals' tips.

Sherry grimaces. Yesterday, the day she had been formally granted the title as crown princess over the sister she barely saw, she had been whisked away to knight an unknown man only to find that the stranger was barely older than her—maybe even younger than her. Though she would like to think she didn't judge based on such an antiquated criteria like age, how could she trust a person who had only lived 18 years, and most probably trained for knighthood for even less, with her life?

Sherry's a realist; she didn't expect to be granted a personal knight of Sir Gin's caliber. But could it be any more obvious that she had been crowned only to let die?

Still, she knighted him, as much as she would have preferred to have first conferred her dearest, her only friend, Ran. Not that the current rules allow for a woman to be knighted. But the sight of her insignia dangling on an _outsider _instead of her sole trusted confidant is surprisingly more difficult to endure than she had thought in her head.

Her knight, whom she had been told to call Silver Bullet, announces, "The presence of Princess Sherry is requested by Lady Vermouth, Duchess of the South. The Lady is waiting for Her Highness at the central hall."

Sherry's expression sours. A meeting with _Lady_ Vermouth never brings any good. Still, there are matters to be addressed, and she does so: "Silver Bullet, I thought I ordered you to never come in here unless permitted."

"I am here to escort you on The Lady's orders."

Sherry blinks. Then, she laughs, lightly, a lovely sound, like she'd been taught to do, regardless of the circumstances. Regardless of how she feels. Regardless of what she plans to do.

"You were right, chambermaid. I _can't_. Not as I _am_. Look, even my own knight disobeys me for another."

"Princess—"

"Hush. No matter. The Lady must not be kept waiting." It doesn't matter if the knight by her side isn't really hers. She never really thought there would be anyone but Ran by her side anyway. Knowing this knight's true allegiance early on is a blessing, she must believe that. Because then she can plan accounting for the sword she might find aiming from behind.

On the way to the hall, Sherry thinks she should have definitely prepared _years _earlier for a fight, and she scolds herself thinking that she should definitely have expected her knight to turn against her the earliest moment he could. Because at the exact time she took a turn to the most isolated corridor in the castle in an amazing show of lack of self-preservation, Silver Bullet grabs her wrist in a complete breach of conduct and leads her to an alcove a little ways from the study she frequents—which is why her feet subconsciously took her down the remote path anyway—and practically manhandles her to move and hide at the fastest possible as if someone would _care_ if she disappeared.

She doesn't bother calling for help.

Frankly, things don't add up. If Silver Bullet had been tasked to kill her on Vermouth's orders, it wouldn't matter where he'd do it, really.

Not that she'd need to think too much about it, because after a quick staring contest in the dark, he's already about to talk.

Before he does though, he suddenly releases her and he kneels. _He. Kneels._After practically throwing her into an alcove.

He whispers, "Princess, I'm sorry."

_What the heck?_

He continues, "I do not follow Lady Vermouth; I am Her Highness' knight."

_This is getting more confusing._

He continues, "I cannot afford to lose this title. Not now. Please, Princess, understand and forgive my transgressions just this once."

_Wait, I'm not about to die..?_

_He… threw me into a hidden nook to apologize..?!_

… _This doesn't add up..!_

When he looks up and finds her staring at him in bewilderment, they lock eyes again. In a moment, Sherry understands. She can tell, because she's the same.

She gets straight to the point and asks, "Who?" _Who did they threaten you with?_

"… Your lowly knight is called Kudo Shinichi, Princess," he answers, in a way that doesn't _and does_, without moving his eyes away from hers.

She chuckles. _Well_. She guesses that's enough of a confirmation, and it's not like she _needs_ to know the specifics. "I'm sure tomorrow you'll know better than to waste my time."

She smooths out the layers of her dress and she leaves him kneeling while she emerges from the alcove. She doesn't bother to look when she says, "Let us carry on, my knight."

Steady footsteps ring from behind her.


	7. 4-8

4/8: System Administrator, Multiple Realms, Transmigration, World Hopping

* * *

As Shinichi rests in the pure white space between worlds he had since been used to, he calls out to his system, "Hey… Haibara, if I gather enough points, I'll really be able to go back, right?"

Haibara, his system, answers, "... For the _thousandth_ time, _yes_, that's what it says in the shop: exchange 1 million points for APTX-5141, the resurrection pill."

"Ok, just confirming."

The day Shinichi Kudo met the men in black in Tropical Land that fateful day that is, for him, _literally_ lifetimes ago, he died. When he woke up, what greeted his eyes was this pure white nothingness. He had thought this was the afterlife. A voice quickly told him no, though.

That voice was Haibara's. She had introduced herself as his system: a sort-of intermediary to the powers-that-be that are offering him a chance to go back to that day in Tropical Land, doubling as his assistant, his partner in completing missions in the worlds the powers-that-be throw him into in order to collect points.

It's hard to define her. The closest in his world would be… Siri? Alexa? Sophia? But a million times sassier and saltier.

Sometimes he thinks she's alive. Or _was_ alive. He had asked that once and she had answered then, "I think I'd remember if I had been _anyone_ or _anything_ but _this_. But I _don't_, so."

When he asked her again, she had said, "Yeah, right, stop flattering me because I'm not going to help you for free _ever_ _again_."

Shinichi would like to say he had lost count of how many lives he has lived by now, but he hasn't. He has done 142 now, and he has yet to earn even a half of what he needs to get to go back. When he thinks about his end goal, it makes him unbelievably tired, so he asks the same question, over and over again to Haibara. When he hears her tired too, it makes him laugh. Less tired.

Haibara's voice echoes in his mind as she continues, "I'd tell you if something changed in the shop, so stop asking."

"Can't you just give me the pill?"

"If I could have, I would have—"

"_For_ _me_? That's so _sweet_ of _you_!"

"—_just to shut you up,_ since you're getting annoying with all the repeating questions! Are you sure you're not the system between the two of us? You talk like an NPC; download some new dialogue, would you?!"

Shinichi laughs, "Hey, hey, don't be mad. When you're mad you get extra salty. Your virtual wrinkles are getting deeper."

"How would you know, you can't even see it."

"Oh, I do. _In my heart_."

"Ha ha, _very funny_, now get your ass moving and do some missions so we can leave this blasted space already."

Feeling rested enough, sadly at the expense of his system, Shinichi switches gears into business mode in a snap, and asks her, "What are the available worlds?"

Haibara, far too used to him by now, not that she ever had difficulties syncing with him, doesn't miss a beat as she replies, "There are three: a futuristic setup with an intergalactic war backdrop, an ancient setting with magical swords and charms and a crumbling kingdom, and..."

"... _And_? Why'd you stop?"

"And a modern world, suspiciously similar in terms of time period and setting to the one you've come from based on what you've told me."

"Then what are we waiting for? You know what I'll choose, right?"

"The third world has… _special_ conditions."

"Just tell me."

"'_Assistance withdrawn'_ is what it says. No further explanations. … Kudo-kun, this doesn't look good. I advise against it."

"... Haibara, you're _still_ not telling me something are you..?"

"... 100 000 points on completion of mission."

"What's the mission?"

"Redacted."

"That's a tenth of what I need Haibara. I can't pass it up."

"... ... Ready to go, then?"

"Yeah, you'll be there in case something happens anyway, so I'm not really worried."

"The world literally says _assistance withdrawn_, _genius_. I'm not sure if I _can_ even if I would want to."

"Which you _wouldn't_, I know. But you can find a way, I'm sure, if you really _need_ to, since you're the _best_ system, right?"

"Do you think I don't know what you're doing?"

"You're a _genius_ system, right?"

"Argh, shut up already, _idiot_, let's go finish this quick!"

"You say you want me to do missions to get _out_ of this space, then you say you want to complete missions to get _back_ to this space. _Women_, really.."

"..."

"Nah, I think it's just _you_ that's so _confusing_! You're _so special_, Haibara!"

"... Transfer in 3… 2..."

"Haha, don't worry it'll be fine! I won't run around so much this time since you're worried."

"1..."

Shinichi's vision goes black.

Shinichi wishes he can say he's used to the heavy influx of information the moment he wakes as another life in another world, but he can't. It's as painful as ever and it makes him dizzy and disoriented.

It takes him a while to get a hold of his bearings. He first checks his surroundings—stuck in the woods at night after orchestrating a car explosion is a fairly new situation but really not something so dangerous once you've lived more than a hundred lives in more life-threatening roles.

The silence is something new for Shinichi, though, since usually, by this time, Haibara would be rattling off a list of do's and don't's for this world's mission already.

Thinking she's still mad, Shinichi injects as much seriousness as he can when he asks, "Haibara, what's the mission and what's the quickest way to achieve objective?" Haibara had always caved when they needed to get things done.

When she still doesn't respond, Shinichi… blanks out. '_Assistance withdrawn'_ echoes in his mind.

He feels nauseous. He calls out to her anyway, "Haibara, let me know if you're there. You don't have to help me. This is not '_assistance'_, just let me know if you're there."

An hour passes and she still hasn't responded. He's only realized he's been shaking when he notices he had stopped. He says, as loud as possible in his mind, to her, "Haibara, don't stop trying, ok? Let me know, as soon as you can. As soon as possible hopefully."

When Shinichi stands up, an unfamiliar black prompt with green text shows in his vision, "_Mission: Take down the Organization."_ It's not the usual dull gray and black he's used to seeing 142 times now and he _hates_ it.

He accepts.

He's going to get this done and _get them back to that damned white nothingness_ in record time.

Ah, he's never felt so angry before.


	8. 4-9

4/9: There's only one bed

* * *

"...Kudo-kun, when I told you I was fine rooming with you, I assumed you knew I was agreeing to a _twin _room and not a _double_—"

"I didn't book this, ok?! Mom did!"

Shiho, snapping out of the shock she had gone into when she saw the only bed in the room, turns to her roommate for the night. She looks at Shinichi, all flustered and still looking at the bed in shock. She sighs. "Let's just go down to the reception and have this sorted out."

When Shinichi still doesn't move, Shiho sighs again. As she turns to leave, she mutters under her breath, "Though if it's Yukiko-san, I doubt this is going to be that simple..."

And it isn't—because the hotel is fully-booked because it's peak season, full of tourists from all over to watch the wonders of spring, or so the receptionist says.

Or, perhaps, it _is _simple—because this sharing a bed trope just reeks of classic romcom that Shiho has read and watched for far too many times already.

Knowing that Yukiko is involved, though, complicates things. Quite familiar with her own flair for the dramatic, surpassing even her son's theatrics, Shiho is suddenly apprehensive of this entire trip. Yukiko would _never _be satisfied with using just _one simple _trope for her plans.

When they get back to the room, Shinichi is still oddly quiet. Shiho is tired though, and, deciding that whatever Yukiko has planned for the night can just happen since she's most probably just going to sleep through it because she is just _that _tired, she announces, "I'll shower first."

Shinichi's head snaps to her direction, cheeks flushed so red it makes Shiho feel secondhand embarrassment even when she didn't say anything wrong! "You pervert! I'm going to _sleep_, and I'm not sleeping without showering! How is your mind so dirty, honestly?!"

"W-what, I didn't say anything!" Shinichi looks away and fiddles with the straps of their luggages.

"Shut up, _pervert_!" Shiho slams the door to the bathroom.

Shiho curses the pervert detective in her mind as she lets the hot water wash the stress off her… until she realizes she forgot to bring her toiletries with her, and a change of clothes.

_Oh, for god's sake, how many romcom clichés are we going to act out tonight?!_

Well, she isn't going to go out dressed in a towel. "Kudo-kun."

"Yeah?" When Shinichi looks over, and he sees the bathroom door open just a tiny bit, "—W-what the hell, Haibara?! What the f—_close the door_!"

"I opened it _for a reason_, dumbass, and it's practically—"

"Whatever, close it, _close it_, I don't want to see! _What are you doing?!_"

"—just a centimeter open and _what the hell do you think I want you to see?!_ I just need my bag!"

"Oh, _god_, which bag, Haibara, I swear, _why are you doing this_, did my mom put you up to this..."

"_Stop muttering and just get me my bag!_"

"_Which bag?!_"

"_The purple one!_"

"That's your entire luggage, Haibara."

"Well, do you think I'd want _you _to dig through my clothes?"

"It's just clo—oh, _oh_, ok, _ok_." Shinichi flushes bright red again. When he hands Haibara, or at least, Haibara's extended arm, her bag, Shiho says, "_Thank you._ Now turn around or get out of the room, god, you're annoying!"

"Hey, _no_, this is my room too! And, just for the record, I did _not _want to search through your lingerie—"

"Shut _up_, Kudo!"

"_I just wanted to make that clear!_"

"It _was_, it _is_, so _shut up_!"

"_Ok!_"

Shiho slams the door again.

_This night cannot end fast enough._


	9. 4-10

4/10: 너 너 너 나를 믿어줄래 _(You, you, you, would you trust me?)_ —Violeta by IZ*ONE

* * *

Dry lips on dry lips, not at all what she'd imagined, but it takes her breath away anyway. When their lips part, she exhales the breath she'd been keeping unknowingly, and her heartbeat echoes in her ears, echoes in the room and she wonders if he can hear it—no, of course, he _can_. This is Shinichi Kudo. How could he not hear, _how could he not know?_

Their gazes never stray from each other. _It's heavy,_ Shiho thinks, _his gaze is heavy._ And when her heart tries to beat out of her chest, to escape the pressure, maybe, she reaches for his and it's loud, loud, _loud_ against his chest too that for a moment she's surprised. Then, she smiles, because, _of course_, even _like this_, even _in this_, _she's not alone_, because _he promised_—she smiles, but not for a moment too long, because he leans down again and kisses her, his dry lips again on hers, and her smile melts under the pressure of his lips on her upper lip—

She _feels_. She feels his hand on hers, the one on his chest, his other hand now on the small of her back, as her lips squeeze his bottom lip back, lightly, then a little bit stronger, then a little—

He pulls back a little bit, and Shiho would be embarrassed to admit her lips tried to chase his as he did, but Shiho isn't because Shinichi didn't really give her enough time to process anything as he tilts his head just a tiny bit more and crosses the space between them again with a light tentative swipe of his tongue on her lips right before it goes right in.

With a bit of pressure on her tongue, Shiho _feels_, and Shiho moans into the kiss, and she presses back. His left hand, now holding the back of her head, fingers threading through her hair; his right hand, roaming, rubbing, _teasing_ her back. Shiho clings, Shiho slips her hand under the hem of his shirt, and when her fingers come into contact with the skin of his hips, Shinichi _groans_ and squeezes her bottom lip, _harder_, and presses his body against hers, and it's _warm_, it's _wonderful_, how Shiho _feels so much_—

How she can feel _so much more_—


	10. 4-11

4/11: Haibara forgets

* * *

"Kudo-san, it's nice to finally meet you. I'm Miyano Shiho, but you knew that already didn't you?"

It took a moment for Shinichi to digest hearing "Kudo-san" from the same mouth that called him corpse magnet, with the same pitch that would have made fun of him, Heisei Sherlock Holmes, working a desk job now, in the same tone that greeted him Kudo_-kun_ after a long day of nothing in Class 1-B.

It took him a moment, but the instant it hit him, he winced.

"Ah, silly me, I guess I should have addressed you as Kudo_-tantei_, you being the brightest star of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Apologies. These days, I'm just so _forgetful_."

Shinichi smiles wryly at that. Haibara telling him _herself _that _she forgot_?

—Ah, she goes by _Miyano Shiho_ now. Like she's _always_ had, in her memories.

"Hakase told me a lot about you."

Shinichi, of course, can only say, "Hakase told me a lot about you, too." How else would he be able to explain how he knew her love of dogs, how he knew her brand preferences for bags, how he knew her food selections, how he knew her nervous tics, _how he knew her_—

Lying to Haibara has never felt this painful.


	11. 4-12

4/12: Haibara goes to London

* * *

"Shinichi!"

"What?"

"Stop bothering Shiho-chan!"

Shinichi looks up from his phone to see Ran in her signature Shinichi-I'm-getting-fed-up-with-your-antics-so-behave pose, his fingers still hovering above his phone's on-screen keyboard, the cursor blinking at the end of the incomplete comment he'd been about to post on Haibara's latest Instagram post. Sighing, he steals a glance back at his phone and quickly finishes his comment and hits post, before he locks his phone and says to Ran, "I'm _not_ bothering her!"

"Yes, you _are_!"

"I'm not calling her; I'm not mailing her. I'm literally just leaving a comment on her posts so she won't forget my souvenirs—_our_ souvenirs, Ran."

"But do you _really_ have to comment on _every_ _one_ of her posts, Shinichi? Do you, _really?_!"

"If I don't, she'll forget!"

"I doubt it! _It's Shiho-chan!_"

"Yeah, it's _that woman_ so, most likely, she won't forget everyone's souvenirs, _except mine_. In fact, I'm sure of it now—"

"Have you considered that she'll do that because you keep annoying her with the comments that you're posting?"

"How are my comments annoying?!"

"Let's see: you listed out the establishments on Baker Street _on her photo at Baker Street where she can already see all of them_, you shamelessly asked her for souvenirs four times—oh, make that _five_, I didn't see this new one—on different posts, and—_oh my God, Shinichi!_ You told her she looks at home at Madame Tussauds because her expression is so bland it fits right in?! Tell me why she hasn't _blocked_ you, _you_—_you jerk!_"

"_Hey! _She hasn't replied to my comments so I got a _bit_ snarky, ok?! And it's not like it's not true..."

"_Shinichi!_"

"Well, _she hasn't replied to me yet_ but she keeps on talking to Hakase and the kids! How rude is that?!"

"She's not _obligated_ to talk to you, and she _wouldn't want to_ because you're being a _jerk_!"

"That was _before_ the Tussauds comment, by the way, and, after, _she didn't even get mad_! That woman's really just ignoring me!"

"Stop pestering her! And it's not like you can't buy these things you keep asking her to buy for you, you know?! It's not like you can't go to London yourself to buy them, either!"

"! —_Wait, Ran, you're right!_"

"Of course I'm right! So stop annoying Shiho-chan!"

"_No, Ran!_ I—I have to get ready. See you!"

"Huh..? Wait… Shinichi?! Shinichi, stop ditching school!"

Ran only realizes the next day what Shinichi had been referring to when he told her she was right. Because Shinichi is absent from school the next day.

By lunch time, Shiho's newest Instagram post is a slightly blurry photo of one detective with a wide grin, hand on the shoulder of one unamused strawberry blonde, in front of the sign 221B Baker Street.


	12. 4-13

4/13: Sleeping

* * *

When Haibara's phone lights up at 3AM, she takes it as her cue to leave her computer for a bit, stretch out and get some coffee.

As she waits for her coffee, she sits down and finally looks through her phone. When she sees the sender, Corpse Magnet, she furrows her brows. When she sees what he sent, she rubs her tired eyes before she sends, "You sent me an article on sleep-deprivation for what?"

"It's counterproductive to stay up for research. It kills your brain cells, Haibara."

"I'm pretty sure a lot of researchers would disagree, Kudo-kun."

"Yeah, a lot of researchers whose brain cells have already died due to lack of sleep."

"I think, in this conversation, I'll believe the one with the doctorate, which is me, and would you kindly get to the point already? I'm trying to work here."

"The article also says it stunts growth. Lack of sleep is why you're short."

"Look, Kudo-kun, we both know it's because of APTX that we're both short, but you do know I'm taller than you, right?"

"Right now, you are, but not for long with that attitude, young miss!"

"So, you want me to be taller than you?"

"Whatever, just go to sleep already!"

"So. Where's your point. I think I missed it, you know, with my brain cells dying and all."

"My point is sleep, Haibara, sleep. Then maybe you'll stop being salty and yawning all the damn time."

"My yawning is a problem now? Just spit it out. Do you need me for something in the morning?"

"Yes, yes, god, just sleep, Haibara."

"You could have just told me, you know. Whatever, see you tomorrow and have the Spring Fusae handbag delivered next week."

"Tomorrow is today, Haibara."

"Whatever," Haibara says in the stillness of the kitchen, as she brings her cup of steaming hot coffee back down to her basement, and back to her research.

A few hours later, when Haibara meets Conan, and Conan says nothing, she raises her eyebrow at him. On their walk to school, they lag behind the kids and Haibara takes the moment to ask, "What is it?"

"A case."

"What case?"

"I don't know, Haibara! There's always a case! Later, there'll be one, so help me out, then!" Shinichi walks a bit faster and catches up to Genta and Mitsuhiko arguing about Gomera, leaving Haibara staring wide-eyed at him, standing still for a moment. She blinks, and the moment passes, and she's back to leisurely trailing after her friends. She thinks it's unbelievable how light she feels when she's running on an hour of sleep and a single cup of coffee.

Maybe she'll read that article later after all.


	13. 4-14

4/14: Conan makes coffee for Haibara during an overnight investigation

* * *

There are days I hate you. There are days I'm tired of you.

But I can't remember a day I didn't love you.

I hope it comes soon.

But today it hasn't come. Today, I still love you.

Tonight, sitting beside each other in silence, drinking a cup of warm coffee each, I'm the only one to notice the distance between our fingers when we place our cups back down on the table, in sync, like our hearts never were.

The light from the screen is reflected in your eyes, and you in mine.

I'm looking at you, but not for too long. Never for too long.

So I turn. And the sky is so magnificent I wish I preferred looking at it instead.

The moon is beautiful, isn't it? For sure, you'll say no. Because in the clear night sky, the moon is not in sight, not in yours, not tonight, not with me.

Instead, maybe I'll ask, "Can you see it? The stars."

In my heart I'll say I love you for every star I see in the sky tonight. And if I see one fall, like I did, for you, maybe, I'll say it.

Just kidding.

Not out loud.

I'll say it in the cover of my cup of coffee, into the black depths of bitterness, slowly disappearing into white emptiness.

I'll say it to my palm, when the feeling reaches my eyes and overflows, to catch the words that spill over.

I'll say it, over and over, in my heart, tonight, because the stars are just too many and just too bright, and I'm not enough to contain them.

I wonder, when will the stars fall?

Today is one of those days that I love you most.


	14. 4-15

4/15: Let me be with you —by Round Table

* * *

It's been a long flight, and Shiho can't think of anything but the discomfort of her back, the soreness of her legs and the incessant crying of babies in the seats a few rows down hers. Usually, music can calm her down (but she can't concentrate on the melody right now, and she just had to lose her best pair of noise-cancelling in-ears) or a good shot of caffeine (but she should have known better than to get her hopes up on plane coffee, pun intended).

But at least they're minutes away from landing. Shiho's brows furrows less when she thinks how Shinichi would be so annoyingly ecstatic if he knew she had one optimistic thought just now.

He'd probably call for an exorcist when he knows she just had another (that at least Shinichi would find something to be happy about in this craptastic flight—wait, no, actually, he'd tease her that she missed him!) but he wouldn't know; she'll never tell.

When the announcement to get ready for landing goes on the screen and on the speakers, Shiho calmly locks her seat belt, clasps her hands together and closes her eyes. She goes through her mental checklist: very soon, the plane will land, the seat belt sign will turn off and the captain will announce the time and thank everyone. She will stand up, get her luggage from the overhead compartment, clear immigration, pick up her bigger luggage full of souvenirs from the baggage belt, clear customs, and finally—

It's inevitable that her mind flashes her a picture of everyone, and she lingers on one face in particular.

The drumming of her fingers pause and her grip tightens a bit, before she relaxes as she exhales in a sigh.

Shiho swallows, and the ringing in her ears stop. She opens her eyes and looks over the window: what was clouds and blue before is now green and gray and buildings and tiny cars.

She closes her eyes, and squeezes her hands together just a little bit tighter.

When the announcement goes on then ends, Shiho unlocks her seat belt and stands up, gets her luggage, and gets out of the plane.

She has nothing to do tomorrow, except, maybe, laze around in bed, but she can be persuaded to cook breakfast for a certain culinary idiot detective. She has nothing to do later, too, except, maybe, get a good cup of coffee or two—or three, since she needs to complain to _him_ about everything that's wrong about that trip and that flight, then get a good dinner in before _he_ summons a case out of nowhere...

Shiho just passed customs, and even she's surprised at how well she did on autopilot, and she's out of the gates, and—

—_And there's Shinichi._

_Finally._


	15. 4-16

4/16: ambedo _(from akemimiyano/CoAi Discord)_

* * *

Shiho once heard that "the water is alive." From the tips of her fingers, quickly to her upper arm then to the top of her head to her chin, the crashing of the water against her ears, against her skin fills her senses and before she knew it, the tips of her toes, too, have gone under.

She's submerged. The water neither feels too cool nor too warm. Completely in the water, the waves are gentler, a little less than a nudge here and there, and she feels like she's suspended in air, suspended in a moment in time.

The water envelops her. She flips over and the water accommodates her, follows her, flows with her. She releases a breath, and the water releases it with her, into tiny bubbles that cling to her. They ultimately leave her, the final bubble touching the tip of her nose as a final goodbye. It's a violent contrast to the water's quiet caress, a companionship she can barely feel—until she moves. When she moves, it's a companionship that pulls her in for a tight embrace, a companionship that she cannot escape.

But still a companionship she cannot hold.

She remembers, she'd also once heard "there's nothing to fear." She opens her eyes, and she sees nothing but endless blue blending into the endless blue of beyond and light.

She reaches out. With her, water.

She needs air.

Her chest feels constricted, her lungs feel like they've disappeared—or transformed into a physical layer of pain—and without it, her heart beats loud, louder, fast, faster—

She straightens up, but before she can start swimming to the surface, arms go under hers from behind and she lets out the rest of her breath in surprise as she's quickly hauled up.

When she breaks the surface, she gasps for air. She doesn't need to turn around to see who it is. Instead of the water, it's _his_ voice ringing in her ears now, with inane questions like, "Are you crazy?!" _(I'm not trying to die, dumbass!)_, "Did twenty cups of coffee make you forget how to swim?!" _(What kind of dumb question is that?!)_, and "Are you trying to kill me of fright?!" _(Isn't that what you almost did to me?!)_

As they approach shore, his voice gets less frantic, softer, and she's not sure if he even knows what he's saying, that he's saying anything at all. But she can definitely hear it: "Don't do that again. Don't you _ever _do that again. _Don't_. You _can't_. _You can't._ _Don't_..."

Shiho closes her eyes and listens.


	16. 4-17

4/17: "I'm destined to fall for you" —Second Lead Character _(from Mizhera) _

* * *

It can't be anything less than fate, meeting someone like him in a situation like this in a world with 7 billion people. It must have been written in the world's story, what should have been a tiny inconsequential detail lost among the bigger plot points that mark the world's progression.

Instead it rules her world. She revolves around what should have been just a piddling cog in the machinations of the universe: the Organization, APTX-4869 and its antidote, his survival, and now hers, and _theirs_. Their meeting, and what she foresees is their inevitable parting, are like the ends of two tangled threads looped together in the middle, a messy knot that can only be cut for a clean start.

She feels like a character in a book; her life carefully treading the line between the believable and not. She's the villain-turned-ally member of the protagonist's band of friends. She has tragic backstory turned up to a _hundred_, and she's perfected the gloom and salt of the token loner character. She's the second clue to the overarching mystery in the book. She's the plot device, not only to the main plot, but also to the multitude of cases in between, which, she smugly thinks, would otherwise be unsolvable.

She probably shouldn't be so proud of thinking of herself as a plot device, but, wouldn't it be something to be called _The _Plot Device?

The thought makes her laugh, because if she doesn't, that's just too sad. The only other title she can probably be given is Second Lead.

She's the second lead of this joke of a book, the necessary unnecessary complication to an otherwise beautiful-from-the-start love story in this romance novel overrun by all too many corpses and killers.

Or perhaps she _isn't_. Maybe she's just one of the many targets for conquest that the protagonist can pursue had she been in a visual novel instead. But she's in a book, in a drama, with only one happy ever after, and that ending isn't hers.

What's left of her is to play her part perfectly. _And she does._

When the hero gives her his cap to hide her from the real and imagined dangers, she smiles. When the hero puts his glasses on her to shield her from her fears, her breath hitches. When the hero tells her not to run away, she doesn't. When the hero saves her, she falls.

And when the hero isn't looking, she is. She blushes. She cries. She smiles some more.

She thinks about him. She misses him. She worries for him. She supports him. All under the cover of a mismatched, patched-up blanket of half-truths and excuses, overlooked due to a mix of missed chances and cut-off opportunities, all written in the world's story", because that's how second leads are.

That's how the hero doesn't know. That's how the second lead loves.

By now she's sure she'll win best supporting actress at the end of it all.

* * *

_A/N The prompt is from Mizhera's poem (wattpad dot com/506198944) which she kindly gave to me as a prompt for 31 Days of CoAi! She's so nice..!_


	17. 4-18

4/18: Kairosclerosis _(from akemimiyano/CoAi Discord)_

* * *

She was happy.

—Sitting at a quaint little cafe, ordering the cute pastries with the coffee she loved, watching her sister animatedly speak and babble. Walking with her sister, pretending, forgetting for a moment that they had no strings, no chains, as they talk about her sister's university, her trips, her classmates and professors, the life her sister so desperately wanted to share and the life Shiho desperately wanted to be part of. Seeing her sister alive.

—Sitting on the backseat, earphones on, messages from the mother she never knew playing, her voice managing to convey every ounce of care and love that Shiho had imagined during the nights she can. Hearing someone say they understand.

Now, in the quiet of the afternoon, hands frozen on top of keyboard, aroma of the coffee he makes for two, for her, for the two of them, lingering in the air, enveloping the room, sunlight through the windows, the crunch of pages as he moves to the next page, next chapter—she hopes it doesn't end. His eyes move across the words; her eyes don't. She looks at him sitting on his favorite spot on the couch, next to hers, bright pink sparkly slippers contrasting with his plain house clothes, alive, breathing softly, brows furrowing now and then at what she can only conclude are not-so-logical plot points in the novel.

Shiho has always believed that happiness only lived in the past. That the instant she thinks, "I'm happy," the moment would have been done and gone. Because happiness is a feeling belatedly acknowledged, and that's alright, because when you're out of the moment, that's how you have the space to think, and that's how you know you've been happy.

And that's fine.

Now, her heart is full, overflowing. Is it because she'd been delaying saying, thinking, "I'm happy"? She didn't want it to end. So, instead, like a bubble, it burst, and the moment came to her, hit her, suddenly, in a quiet afternoon, and froze her hands on top of her keyboard midway through the sentence in the paper she'd been writing since morning.

This morning, when he came in for breakfast and kissed her forehead when he found none, and almost burnt the eggs he'd forgotten to salt. This morning, when he made her coffee just the way she liked it, with an apologetic little grin and a plate of toast and eggs placed perfectly in the cover just for her.

Now, this afternoon, after they shared a quick lunch and he put on coffee for two before he settled in his favorite spot on the couch, she's overtaken by the urge to say—

"I love you."

_Yes, this is love._

Shinichi looks up from his book, looks at her, blinks, and laughs softly. The corners of his mouth turn up, and he says, "Shiho, we're married."

He turns back down to his novel, raises it a bit higher, a bit closer to his face when he says, "I love you, too."

_This is happiness._


	18. 4-19

4/19: Courtesan AU

* * *

On the eve of Shinichi's 20th birthday, he finds himself blindfolded, his ears ringing from the excited chatter between two of his best friends swearing that he'll "definitely go crazy" for their gift and he'll "kneel to the ground and kiss our feet in thanks the morning after!"

Had Shinichi not been wearing the blindfold, he would have caught the suspicious wink and grin the two shared.

In any case, Shinichi is still blindfolded, and he's fairly sure he won't be going around kissing feet anytime soon, much less kneel while doing that. He chalks it up to Hattori and Kuroba being ridiculous again.

Judging by the sounds and the conversations they have had since getting down from the car, Shinichi deduces they must be bringing him to some kind of entertainment establishment. As their footsteps echo in a suspiciously silent—minus the snickers and passing comments from his companions—corridor, Shinichi really, really hopes it isn't anything as cliche as a brothel… but he quickly resigns himself when he hears the sound of door unlocking and opening. Before he can complain how they can ever think that he'd want this as a gift—a mystery novel would have sufficed, really—he's dragged inside and quickly thrown forward, and the words in his mouth are muffled by the mattress he had ended up in when he fell on his face.

His hands finally free from the death grip the two had been keeping him in, he sits up, he sighs and starts fiddling with the really tight blindfold.

"I don't know what the two of you were smoking when you had been planning this,"—damn, this knot is tight—"and I don't think I would want to know,"—ha, finally got it undone!—"but if it isn't obvious yet, I—"

Shinichi's mouth hangs open as he sees the profile of a woman, quite possibly one of the most beautiful women he had seen ever in his life—and his mother is an actress!—lit up from the oranges and yellows of the hallway lights seeping in from the ajar door. The light disappears in one quick motion, almost soundless except for the tiny click of the door lock, when the woman closes the door.

Now, the moonlight from the window is the only source of light, and Shinichi is treated to a full view of the woman's face. Shinichi studies the way the moonlight is cast on her, and he can't describe it in any other way but magic. Her robe, which had looked warm and red under the hallway lights, turns dark and heavy under the moonlight—

Not that Shinichi can notice much of anything else right now, because he's too busy looking at her, at her face, at her lips that glimmer impossibly in the dark, like his own personal line of moonlight, at her eyes—

Would it be a crime to describe her eyes as the stars in the night when he can't think of any other words with which to file this detail in his mind? Are they dark blue? Zircon? Dark green? Tsavorite? No, alexandrite? Reflected within is the moonlight, and a formless darkness he wants to see—

Except his eyes are forcibly pulled away by the motion of pale white hands—hers—undoing the laces on her robes, and Shinichi's eyes widen when it starts to slip off her shoulders.

Shinichi instinctively looks back up at the woman's eyes, and he sees her smirking, her eyes narrowing slightly, and he vaguely registers that she's closer to him now—and that his mouth is still open, so he closes it and it feels so dry so he gulps—

And Shinichi would have flinched at how audible that had been, but the woman leaned down and is now very, very close, one-breath-away close to Shinichi. When she takes his hand, she guides it to her laces and pulls, her robes slipping down more. Shinichi sharply inhales, and it smells of strawberries and lime.

The woman leans further forward, and Shinichi can feel the dip of the mattress as the woman places her legs on each of his sides, one after the other. Shinichi can somehow feel the woman's warm breaths gently on his neck, and her other hand lightly traces a path on his chest before settling on his shirt's button. He can feel the heat of her breath on his ears now.

A movement capture Shinichi's attention. He looks down, and the woman's slender fingers are fiddling with his shirt button. This snaps Shinichi's mind out of—out of whatever that was. Her hand is trembling, struggling with unfastening the button, and Shinichi is disappointed with himself that it is only now that he notices how her entire body had been shaking—lightly, yes, but he should still have noticed!

Shinichi exhales his frustration, and his suddenly booming heartbeats, away, and holds her hand still. She tenses up. He inhales deeply, then exhales, before he says, "Stop."

"Then," she replies as she leans away from him a little, now sitting down on his lap and facing him fully, "how do you want this?"

Her head is tilted at such an angle that the line of her neck is fully displayed to Shinichi, who blinks once, twice, thrice, before he manages to choke out a, "How do I want what?"

"This," she whispers, as she pulls one of the ties on her robe off completely using his hand that she hadn't let go, "Sex."

Shinichi sputters, "I don't want it!" In his panic, he'd somehow pushed the woman off his lap and she landed on the floor on her butt, her robe only covering half of her now.

He would have apologized, but seeing a completely bare leg and the annoying robe now hanging off her right shoulder stunned his brain a bit. The woman didn't even look affected in the slightest before she fixes her sitting position on the floor to a more comfortable one.

Looking up at Shinichi, she just says, "Umm, ok, though I feel sorry for your friends who have kindly bought you a night with the priciest woman here..."

"You're the priciest?" Shinichi doesn't really expect much from his blockhead friends but...

"I think I'm getting offended. Do I not look like I'm worth it? Is that why you're refusing?"

"No! But you were shaking just now…" Shinichi blushes at the not-so-long-ago memory that involuntarily presents itself in his mind, and he would have shaken his head to clear it if he wasn't in front of the woman in the memory, because now is clearly not the time to relive those touches—

"... I was not." For the first time that night, Shinichi sees the woman look away from him. He finds it inexplicably satisfying.

"You were, and it took you so long to unbutton my shirt like it's your first time—"

"It's not."

A bit taken aback at her firm denial, Shinichi cuts his deduction short and settles for saying, "Yeah, yeah, I won't tell anybody, I mean, if it got out that the top woman was a virgin—

The woman looks back at him and says, "I'm really not. I'm just used to… taking it." She turns away again.

"… What?"

She sighs. "I'm only expensive because of my patrons. That's it. So, yeah, I do feel sorry you and your friends got duped but that's the way it goes around here." She puts her hands on the sash of her robe, then looks up at him, saying, "Let's just get to it."

"Hey..?! Hey, stop undressing!" Shinichi scrambles down to the floor and—finally!—pulls up her robes tight against her body.

"The robe stays?"

"Yes! Now, just... stay there."

"You want to do it on the floor? Well, that should be fine…"

"No! No, just… "

"It will be a bit uncomfortable though—"

"No! No sex!"

"… Ah." When Shinichi sees comprehension dawn on her face—he admits it was fascinating watching her furrowed brows smoothen out, her eyes wide and bright looking down then at him, her lips in a tiny pout that suddenly parted slightly—he's relieved that they're finally on the same page. She continues, "Well, I think I can get you a refund for the night."

Shinichi lets out a breath in relief and smiles as he says, "Thank you."

The woman fixes her robes and begins tying the loose laces. She stands, a flash of her leg there and gone, as she turns and says, "Goodbye, then."

"Wait," Shinichi blurts out before he can think. She doesn't stop though, so Shinichi asks the first question that enters his mind, "Where are you going?"

She ties the top most ribbon and pats her robe down, as she answers, "Probably another customer."

"Then you might as well just stay here."

At that, she stops. "I thought no sex?"

"No sex," he confirms.

This is when she turns back and sees him standing, looking at her. She can't figure him out. She asks, "Then why will I be here?"

He looks away from her, a sheepish grin now on his face, his hand scratching the back of his head, as he answers, "Uhh… to dupe my friends' money?"

"Why would you want me to dupe your friends' money..?"

He looks back at her, "Because they tricked me to get to this situation anyway?"

"Why are you asking me?" He sees her eyebrow raise at him, her arms now crossed across her chest.

"No, yeah, that's my answer. They're jerks so go get that money without putting in the work. That's great, isn't it?"

Her eyes narrow further, and the silence stretches between them... until she lets out a breath and relaxes. "Well, I guess..." This is one eccentric customer. She decides to play along. "So, what do we do?"

"Uhh..." Shinichi looks around the room and spots a chair. "I guess you can go sit down on the chair?"

"So, we do it on the chair?"

"No! I already told you, no—"

"No sex."

"Yes! Now, if you don't like the chair, then go lie down on the bed, I don't know!"

"Lie down on the bed... but no sex."

"No sex!"

"Ok..." She walks past him and lies down on the bed, as directed. Shinichi, now feeling awkward as hell and with the bed taken, gets the chair and sits down.

Unexpectedly, she starts the conversation once he sits down on the chair long enough. She asks, "Are you a therapist?"

"No, I'm a detective." Shinichi makes it a point not to look at the direction of the bed.

"A virgin detective," she says, and Shinichi manages to catch the smirk that flits on her face before her usual passive expression slips back on.

"Shut up! You're just not my type."

"If you think I'd be offended, sorry. I just pity you for having such poor taste." She smiles, and her chin is raised up just a little bit, her head, propped up by her arm as she faces sideways so she can look at Shinichi, tilting just so that her bangs move down her forehead.

Thoughtlessly, Shinichi remarks, "You should smile like that more often."

"… What?"

"You look like a stern stewardess with that ice-cold face and crossed arms earlier you know? Now you look more..."—beautiful is what he wanted to say, but—"You look younger, yeah."

"Are you flirting with me?"

"What?!"

"You said no to sex, but you're flirting?"

"What is it with you and sex?!"

"It's my career."

"Ok, alright, then is calling someone young, flirting?"

"Hmm. So I was wrong?"

"You were wrong."

"I'm never wrong."

"Just now you were because I wasn't."

"Ok."

"Ok. So, maybe we should just try to sleep."

"You'll sleep on that chair?"

"Yes!"

"There's space here."

"This chair is very comfortable."

"If you say so..."

"It is."

"Ok..."

The woman lies on her back now, and closes her eyes.

She doesn't know how long it had been, but when she feels the space beside her dip, she says, "Happy birthday."

"T-thanks..."


	19. 4-20

4/20: Kaguya-sama: Love is War AU

* * *

Whenever Kudo Shinichi and Miyano Shiho walk in the corridor leading to the student council's office, the people all stop and stare and marvel in awe at how picture-perfect the two of them look together. Like the scepter and the crown to a monarchy, both are exquisite, elegant and priceless by their own right, but together, they make royalty.

Miyano Shiho, student council vice president, is the top of her year and the national exams, as well as the first author of numerous academic journals on the sciences, most especially in biochemistry. To add to that, she's even exceptionally beautiful, with a refined grace expected of heirs to conglomerates in the 99 percentile—though not much is known about her family. The only point that would otherwise take away from her being touted as perfection personified is her somewhat cold aura and terse replies... though her not-so-secret fan club in the school would beg to differ—"She _is_ perfect!"

Kudo Shinichi, student council president, is well-known in the school as the star of the soccer team and well-known in the city—and perhaps, in the country!—as the Savior of the Police Force, the Heisei Holmes, the brilliant detective who has solved mysteries that the others twice, thrice his age could not. Hailed as the Detective of the East, his intellect is no less than his vice president, though the not-so-few classes he had missed while on one of his investigations had cost him a few points off the mark. Still, even with frequent absences, his outspoken and dynamic personality on top of his immense popularity easily mark him as a leader, even without knowing his responsible streak, mature outlook and resourceful approaches that would solidify his position as the president. His special brand of deduction, though, has his antis—who are more often than not Miyano fans, too, unsurprisingly—saying that he's _too_ arrogant. His fans, of course, all say: "He _is_ perfect!"

_Their_ fans say: "They _are_ perfect, _together_!"

At that Miyano Shiho thinks, "Together? _Kudo-kun and I?_ Hah, what a joke. Like I'd give him the time of day. So what if he's Heisei Holmes? Corpse Magnet, more like. …Though, I could, maybe, agree to a dinner with him _if_ he'd beg for it on his knees while offering this season's Fusae purse." She thinks that while inviting Shinichi to her residence next door when she claims that she mistakenly cooked too much for just the professor and her, going around crime scenes calling for forensics, backup and the like, and smiling at Shinichi's dramatic deductions as she lines up the evidences he needs highlight at key points.

At that Kudo Shinichi thinks, "Together? _Miyano and I?_ Pfft, sounds like something my mom would say. Being with her is like being with an ice block. She's a literal ice queen, if ice can be salty and bitter. …Though, if she'd ask me out, there's a slight chance I'll think about it, _if_ she confesses using the school PA system." He thinks that while bribing Shiho with brand-name coats and bags to go with him to cases, buying tickets for two on soccer matches when the season rolls out, and surreptitiously mirroring Shiho's proud smile as he destroys the suspect's alibis one by one.

Yoshida Ayumi, student council treasurer, an all-around sweet and brilliant girl, thinks that two of her best friends, namely Shiho-chan and Shinichi-kun, are complete _idiots_.


	20. 4-21

4/21: Flowers

* * *

She had always wanted to come here. Always.

_Nee-chan. I'm here. _

Shiho pours the water on the gravestone, and starts scrubbing away the dirt that have accumulated in the time she had not been able to visit.

_I'm free._

As she wipes down the grave, now as clean as she could make it, in her mind, she wipes away the regret that she could have visited as soon as she knew, because now—

_I'm happy._

And she knows that's all her sister would have wanted, for both of them. Shiho places flowers on her sister's gravestone, bright, like her.

_There's a lot that's happened, but you already know, don't you? You've always been watching over me..._

Shiho lights the incense sticks and places them.

_Nee-chan, I can finally see you again. This time, anytime I want!_

_...I wish you were with me._

She closes her eyes in prayer. In her mind, she tries to show her sister what she had seen. In her heart, she tries to share how she felt.

_There's a lot that's happened, nee-chan. I think I've changed. I've gained a lot of courage. And, now, I can honestly say that every day is beautiful. _

_Yesterday, we went with the kids to watch the new Gomera movie. Did you ever imagine that Gomera would be able to use weapons? _

_Today, I'm here with you._

_And, tomorrow, we'll go to the unveiling of the new art museum. I'll be helping Kid this time. Keep it a secret, nee-chan! I can't let anyone, especially a certain someone know..._

Then, she feels a pointed gaze at her.

She knows Shinichi is there.

_As always, right on cue, he's there. Hey, nee-chan, he's the one I'm always telling you about._

When she thinks of him, she looks over to his direction. He startles, not expecting her to know he's there. He scratches his cheek—in apology, she knows.

She tilts her head down and her bangs fan out, and Shinichi can't see her expression. When she looks up at him, there's a tiny smile on her face, and the light from the sun in the clear skies on her eyes, and the wind playing with the leaves on the trees and her hair stops him from bolting from where he is.

He only manages to take a step back when she's already in front of him. Her smile widens, and the heat rushes to his cheeks. He's a bit muddleheaded the moment she clings to his arm. He offers no resistance as she pulls him to where she had been.

_Hey, nee-chan. This is Kudo-kun. Kudo Shinichi. This genius detective is the dumbass that changed my life. What do you think..?_


	21. 4-22

4/22: MMORPG AU

* * *

**gray9: **Kudo-kun, you suck at this.  
**hohoholmes: **Then you heal.  
**gray9:** I would but I need to complete the dungeon runs for this character too.  
**hohoholmes:** Then deal with it.  
**gray9:** Maybe you'd be a better healer if you stopped being so snappy.  
**hohoholmes:** I'm trying, ok?!  
**gray9:** Trying to what? You've been dogging those enemies around when you know your priest is under-geared and can't kill.  
**hohoholmes:** I can kill them.  
**gray9:** Yeah, but we'll get killed first.  
**hohoholmes:** Haibara, stop nagging!  
**unagilove:** Conan, why are you over there?! Heal!  
**gray9:** Pfft.  
**hohoholmes:** Shut up, woman!  
**Mitch: **Ayumi-chan, Conan-kun and Haibara-san are arguing again!  
**ayu11:** You guys, concentrate!

_They finish the dungeon._

**ayu11:** You two always start arguing whenever we run dungeons together! When will you guys stop and play nice?l  
**gray9:** I don't know... once the self-proclaimed genius actually gains the skills to back it up?  
**hohoholmes:** Shut up, woman! I can destroy you in a duel!  
**gray9: **Can you?

_Shinichi gestures to her phone, and she looks at the screen. She sees the prompt, "hohoholmes is requesting for a duel."_

**hohoholmes: **Accept!

_In 30 seconds, hohoholmes is down on the floor next to his healing totem._

**hohoholmes:** This isn't my main! And assassin bursts hurt so of course you'd win! I'll switch and let you taste defeat!

_Haibara only needed to wait for 10 seconds before she saw the prompt, "sherlockholmes is requesting for a duel."_

_In 45 seconds, sherlockholmes is down on the floor._

**sherlockholmes:** Pfft, assassins are overpowered on duels.  
**gray9: **Then I'll change.

_After several more matchups, all ending with Shinichi's character dying within a minute, Ayumi finally has enough of the slaughter._

**ayu11: **Ai-chan, stop bullying Conan-kun already...

_Shinichi winces. Haibara chuckles when she sees, and Shinichi's face sours even more when he hears her laugh._

**dandydoggo:** I'm not bullying him.  
**Mitch: **Haibara-san, let him last at least a minute and a half until you kill him off…  
**baker221b:** I'm just going easy on Haibara, ok?!"  
**dandydoggo:** Yeah, yeah.  
**baker221b:** No, really, I'm going to destroy you. Accept!

_Haibara declines the prompt "baker221b is requesting for a duel."_

**dandydoggo:** I'm getting tired of this.  
**baker221b:** Shut up and accept!

_Again, Haibara declines the prompt "baker221b is requesting for a duel."_

**dandydoggo:** Wanna bet on it?  
**unagilove: **Ooh, that's interesting!  
**Mitch:** I bet 30 seconds 'til Conan-kun dies.  
**unagilove:** I bet 40!  
**ayu11:** I bet 45!  
**baker221b:** Hey, none of you are on my side!  
**dandydoggo:** 'Cause you suck.  
**baker221b: **I'll make you eat those words.  
**ayu11:** Ai-chan, rest a bit, then kill him in 45 seconds!  
**dandydoggo:** Hmm, but what do I get when I win?  
**baker221b: **You say that like you're going to win.  
**dandydoggo:** Duh. What's the score again?  
**unagilove:** What about... loser buys lunch?  
**baker221b: **After this fight, me-1, you-0.  
**dandydoggo: **Make yourself believe that.  
**Mitch:** Loser buys tickets to our movie trip next Saturday!  
**dandydoggo: **Loser does whatever the winner wants.  
**baker221b:** Deal. You're going down, Haibara.

_Haibara accepts the prompt "baker221b is requesting for a duel."_

**ayu11:** You can't!  
**Mitch: **You can't!  
**unagilove:** Huh, why?  
**ayu11: **We'll set what the loser will do!  
**Mitch:** Yeah!  
**ayu11: **What about loser cooks lunch for everyone?  
**unagilove: **Oh, ok, that's good!  
**Mitch:** Yeah… or loser takes over cleaning duties next camping trip!

_After 15 seconds, baker221b's health is already down to half._

**ayu11:** Or, loser records himself singing and sends it to the group chat!  
**Mitch: **Haha, that will be funny!  
**unagilove:** Yeah, and we can set Conan-kun's recording as our ringtones!  
**ayu11: **It's settled then!

_25 seconds into the match, Shinichi sighs. He has been reading the chat box at the bottom of the screen, and following the kids' conversation... which is basically telling him that nobody expects him to win anyway, so they're throwing around things they want him to do._

_Haibara has been reading the chat box too, and after seeing the settled deal, dandydoggo stops moving at the corner of the arena._

_baker221b manages to combo dandydoggo twice, in the same corner, and dandydoggo dies in 40 seconds._

**ayu11:** Whoa?  
**Mitch:** What?  
**unagilove:** Conan won?  
**baker221b:** Serves you right! I told you I was going to win!  
**dandydoggo: **I'd rather lose than have your singing recorded.  
**ayu11: **Oh, right, Conan-kun is…  
**baker221b: **Rude! Lame excuse, since I sing just fine.  
**Mitch: **Yeah, that wasn't a good idea…  
**dandydoggo: **The world would end if I ever set it as my ringtone.  
**unagilove: **Right, we forgot he's tone-deaf.  
**baker221b: **Hey!


	22. 4-23

4/23: Meeting after a long time with no memories

* * *

In the Wembley Stadium, right after watching the dreamlike UEFA Euro finals in person, Kudo Shinichi, unsurprisingly, stumbles upon a case before he even gets to leave the audience seats. By now, he's used to it: a day hardly goes by without a mystery or two to solve. He's not complaining; he loves it! Times like these, when he knows an investigation is about to start, there's always a niggling feeling at the back of his mind, like an alarm of sorts _to remind him_, or to tell him to look… no, _to search_.To search for… _clues_, yeah, to search for clues, that's it.

The feeling is even more intense now as he happens upon a case in this stadium, and he shakes irrelevant thoughts away—he's used to doing that now, too—to focus on the task at hand. Unravelling a mystery, after all, is only fun if it doesn't hurt anybody, and he needs his best right now, if he wants to prevent another murder from taking place.

Even with his utmost concentration, looking around the private box didn't yield him any clues though. He decides the best option for now is to approach the officers for whatever information they might have already, especially on the body and the method of killing. Shinichi's a realist, though, and he's not very optimistic they'd be able to give him anything new. Not enough time has passed for the tests to be done, but, hey, still worth a shot!

As he approaches the scene of the crime, now cordoned off to the public, with the suspects obediently sitting on the couch on the far wall, he sees a woman crouching close to where the body had been found. There's this niggling feeling again, and it's stab, stab, _stabbing_ at his mind—is she a suspect, too?

Nothing can be answered if he doesn't ask, so he makes a move to go over to the woman. He's not very successful, though, because right before he takes a big step towards her, an officer ribs him, literally jabs him in the ribs, too, as he says, "She got you, too, lad?"

When he looks up at the officer, a knowing grin on his face—knowing what, Shinichi doesn't understand, at least not immediately until he continues teasing him, saying, "Everyone gets like that with our resident forensics star."

Seeing Shinichi's still-dazed look, the officer continues, "The lass is also one of our best inspectors. Don't let her pretty face fool you; she can definitely take you down."

Shinichi finally gets it—the officer thinks he's about to hit on the woman. Shinichi thinks it's weird how his first reaction is to roll his eyes at the thought, when he hasn't even seen her face clearly yet… and, oh yeah, wouldn't that be rude? He looks over to where the woman is, and finds her standing now, looking at him.

Their eyes meet and lock for a second or two. Or five.

The niggling thought at the back of his mind intensifies, and he thinks there's ringing in his ears, and he thinks it's really, _really weird_ how he can see this woman's hair flowing in the wind against the backlight of a dazzling carmine sunset, then in the bright blue of the noon-sun—when the sky above the stadium is dreary and gray!—how he thinks her ice cold gaze is _balming_ to his thoughts, that somehow this is… _this is what..?_

A hand claps his shoulder, and he's brought back down to the present from… _wherever_ it was he had just gone to, and he sees that the woman's back is turned to him. He looks at the officer and his ears finally manage to tune back in to what he'd been saying, "—analysed in no time at all! So don't you worry. With Miss Shiho around, this case wlll be solved in a jiffy!"

'_Shiho'_..? That's… _not right..._


	23. 4-24

4/24: Secret

* * *

Miyano Shiho has many secrets.

—The number of nights she stayed up for research. The number of projects she had been pulled into. The number of leads and chemicals she had eliminated as possible drug, and subsequently, as possible antidote.

(The count of names of people whose blood is in her hands isn't a secret.)

—The number of letters she sent to her sister, that never reached her. The number of forms she filed and emails she sent requesting for a day, an hour to see her sister. The number of forms that got denied.

(The few times she was allowed to be with her sister had been under surveillance.)

—Her favorite day and her favorite place, what she wore that day and what he said. The smile on her face when she turned away.

(The secret of her favorite song was wrenched out of her, _childishly_, she would just like to point out.)

—Her number one. Her favorite thing about him. Her favorite expression of his.

(Her favorite person's favorite person had been written for all to know from the start.)

—That she enjoys a lot of dramas, especially the most cringeworthy ones. That, regardless of how the relationships have been written, she always ends up rooting for the main couple.

(That she enjoys games, and is absolutely brilliant at it is no secret at all, when she periodically destroys everyone in a match.)

—That she faints, sometimes.

(She's been sleep-deprived since forever, and her yawns don't really hide anything.)

—That she coughs up blood, sometimes.

(That she unintentionally skips meals when she's absorbed with her work was something the professor always disapproved of.)

—That she went for a checkup with the professor. That the professor cried when they heard the result, and she's referred to an oncologist.

(Her absences in school aren't a secret.)

—The nights she gets up and goes to the kitchen to keep the professor company as he cries some more. The nights she doesn't, and she cries.

(She wakes up when the professor wipes her tears, and she knows she's been found out.)

—That she really didn't want to continue living without her sister. That after she met _them_, she finally wants to live, and live for herself.

(She had told them she wouldn't run, not anymore.)

—That she doesn't find it funny that when she finally wanted, she's told she wouldn't.

(But Shiho's never been someone to just listen to what she'd been told.)

And she doesn't tell.

He finds out anyway.


	24. 4-25

4/25: Zombie Apocalypse AU

In a dilapidated house a long way from civilization, or what remains of it, the previously barricaded attic door slams open, and Miyano Shiho jumps at the sight of familiar blue.

Stunned, Shiho can only call his name: "Kudo... Shinichi..?"

In between his pants and gasps of air, Shinichi manages to shoot back an acerbic, "Oh, _good_, you still remember me!"

Among other things, feelings she dares not name nor say, Shiho feels her eyes sour, so she turns away.

Shinichi regains his breath fast enough to be able to launch into a tirade right after she moves her gaze away. His voice gets increasingly loud as he goes on, and he practically shouts at the end when he says, "Miyano, leaving is ok. Actually, _no_, it isn't, because the world has gone to _shit_, if you haven't noticed!"

"But leaving without a word is definitely, two-hundred percent not ok!" The rickety wood creaking under his footsteps punctuate his words, and Shiho's expression tightens more and more.

When he reaches her, sitting down on the floor, and it's amazing how he hasn't really seen anything in the room other than her—anyway, he'll have time to look around _later_! Knocking some sense into this woman is _priority_—he places her hands on her shoulders and forces her body to turn to him, saying, "If you really wanted to leave, you could have told us! We would have listened!"

He hates how his voice sounds so much like begging. He hates how she still has her head obstinately turned away from him. He hates how he can feel her breaths from the way her shoulders rise and fall, how such a simple action makes him feel so, so relieved, how his vision is blurry and he can just feel the water in his eyes—it's the dust in the attic, he swears.

He swears, he never doubted one moment that she'd be alive. He isn't crying. _He isn't._

Still not looking at him, she whispers, "You would make me want to stay."

He catches her words, barely thinking before replying, "We wouldn't! Beika is our home—your home! You're always free to leave your home, but we, at least, would have wanted a goodbye, and a time to say our own goodbyes, too!"

He doesn't know his grip had turned tight, _tighter_ on her shoulders, enough to cause pain, but Shiho doesn't notice, too, anyway. Shiho is silent as Shinichi sits down on the floor, too, in front of her, as he continues, his voice soft, "I would have... we would have given you the warmest goodbye you could have ever imagined so you'd come back soon..."

At this, Shiho finally looks at him, and cuts him off, "I wanted to leave—"

"Not all goodbyes have to be final!" Shinichi practically shouts in her face, but she—

"This one is," she says, unwavering. Shinichi looks at her, in her eyes that are finally staring straight at him, and he's trying to read in there what she does not say, because, _damn_, this woman is— _impossible_! That's what she is! Why can't she just say that she wants to stay! And then, why can't she just stay! Miyano, what are you not telling me?!

Shinichi couldn't find the answer, and it _frustrates_ him. He looks at her, and all he could see are her too bright eyes against the dark circles under them, her dry pale lips, the light smudge of dirt on the lower part of her left cheek, her usually meticulously styled hair in disarray.

He looks at her, and all he could see is the Miyano beside him come hell or high water, the Miyano beside him that always has salty comebacks to everything he did and said, the Miyano beside him that is always yawning after the impossible all-nighters she pulls whether or not she's assigned on night watch, the Miyano beside him that always has a coffee can in hand, and when she didn't, asks him for one, the Miyano beside him that had been there when there was no one else, the Miyano that is— _was—_ _should be_ always just there, with them, _beside him_.

He grimaces. He'd been quiet long enough, lost in his thoughts, so his voice his hoarse when he sharply says, "That's what you think _now_! We will always be waiting! Don't you know how much... how much the professor cried when you left, how much he threw things and broke things, how fast he packed up his things and..."

Somehow, there's a lump on his throat. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens his eyes, his tone is a lot calmer when he continues, "Don't just disappear like that, Miyano. We will always be waiting. You know how to find us. Always—"

Shiho places a finger to seal his lips close, stopping him from saying any more. All she says is, "Don't."

She smiles, and Shinichi knows that's not her usual smile, not the one she throws at him to annoy him. Neither it is the one he likes to see, the one she wears when she thinks no one can see. It's that smile of hers he hates, that sad smile that conceals everything he needs to understand, and just by that he knows whatever is going to follow isn't going to be any good. Still, he dispels the feeling of dread and stubbornly holds on to hope, even as she says, "You're not supposed to be here. You're not supposed to see."

Shinichi asks, "What—"

"I'm infected, Kudo-kun."

Then they stay like that. Just for a while, just looking at each other, neither of them speaking.

Shinichi is first to break the silence: "That's it? I am, too! Is the virus messing with your head? You've been working on the antidote day and night ever since we've met, and the temporary antidotes work just fine—"

Shiho just smiles wider as she says, "Not for me."

"Wha—"

"Mine's a different strain."

"Then just focus your research on that strain instead!"

Shiho chuckles. Kudo Shinichi will never change. Still the same idiot. She will definitely... _regret_ not being able to spend more time with him. Her smile is a bit more genuine now. "Kudo-kun, that's impossible, it's—"

Shinichi finishes her sentence for her, "—too late? _How long have you known?!_ Anyway, let's get back to your lab to fix— or, did you leave because there's a lead to the antidote here? I'll help you. Don't you _dare_ say no; two people searching is faster than one—"

"I left because I'm turning. I've hit the deadline, Kudo-kun."

Shinichi's furrowed brows are frozen on his face, his mouth slowly closing, lips pressing into a thin line. He looks at her. The small smile on Shiho's face doesn't leave.

Shiho tilts her head a bit, and the sad smile is back on her face when she says, "That's why, I told you. _You're not supposed to be here._"

She looks away from him, instead concentrating on a spot on the floor. She says, softly, "I didn't want you to be."

She bites her lips and tries to blink away the tears, looking up at the ceiling now. Shinichi barely hears her whisper, "Because you'll make me want to stay."

When she's able to look at him again, he catches one, two, three teardrops fall. Her three words stab into him; he feels his world go out of focus for a moment when he hears: "And I can't."

Shinichi hurriedly wipes the tears from her face, somehow not managing to feel his own going down his cheeks, when he frantically asks, "Are you sure? Check again. _Try again_; I have tons of antidotes here in case I found you..."

She shakes her head, still with that smile, saying, "Leave."

He refuses. "No! There must be something we haven't tried—"

Now the smile has left her, and she shouts at him, "_Kudo-kun, leave!_"

He refuses. "Maybe you won't even turn! Maybe that strain is—"

He hears a distinctive creak and click, and even when his sight is blurry from his tears, he knows what that thing in her hand is. "—Miyano?"

She takes a breath. Her voice is calm when she says, "I'm sorry. I wish I had the courage to do this yesterday, then you wouldn't have had to see..."

Shinichi's mind has yet to function, and his heart beats loudly against his chest. "What..?"

She smiles at him, the smile that he loves, and he knows, he knows, _he knows_ what she wants to do—

"—No, Miyano!"

A gunshot echoes in the attic of a dilapidated house a long way from civilization, or what remains of it.


	25. 4-26

4/26: "Haibara Ai" is an android given to Shinichi by Akemi at the end of the One Billion Yen Robbery Case

* * *

True to Hirota Masami's word, large cases filled with money equalling the amount stolen had been left at the front desk of the hotel.

But retrieving the money wasn't why Shinichi rushed back to the hotel, hoping he'd get there before the police arrives. Shinichi dashed to the hotel, faster than he'd ever gone in his life, because of Masami's last words: "Take care of her."

Hidden together with the stack of cases is an expressionless little girl, sitting down quietly, eyes closed as if she were sleeping, still like a life-sized doll.

Masami had told him that she had left her "little sister", an android she had grown up with, to guard the cases for her, and to incinerate the money once the crows approach. Masami said she'll go with him, only if he says—

"Masami-san told me to say, 'Akemi' loves you."

At that, the android slowly opens its eyes. They're a mix of green and blue that Shinichi finds hard to name—but that's not important right now. He has to sneak her out without being suspicious, without alerting the men in black that might have already been lurking around.

While he's deep in his thoughts, he gets disturbed by a soft voice, flat in tone, saying, "She's dead."

He looks at the source and he sees the same expressionless face he had seen earlier. It did not ask. There was no question in its tone, and there was a finality to its statement. Shinichi wonders if it's him still being affected by today's events, but he detects melancholy in the android—it _is_ an android, right?

Even though he's feeling a bit stupid for talking to a machine, Shinichi replies, "Yes. She told me to take care of you."

"You want me for my data," she declares, after looking at him for two full seconds.

Well, it's not wrong. He definitely wants to know if it can give him a profile of the men in black, and the organization they're working for. But more than anything... "Yes and no. I promised her I'd take care of you."

Shinichi recalls the warmth of Masami's hand, how heavy it had been against his small hands, how she grasped his hands tight until he nodded, until he promised.

And Shinichi recalls the burning feeling in his chest when he decided his mission: "And I promised myself I'll bring the organization down. For that part, I need what you know."

The android just looks at him, blinking. Without as much as nod or a nod of agreement, it just says, "Where to?"

Shinichi grins, though it's a lot more subdued than his usual grins. He feels like he passed some sort of test just now, but there's a lot more that needs to be done at the moment than think about the weirdness of talking to a machine, and said machine replying, understanding him perfectly.

He can save all that thinking for later. Now, how to inconspicuously get out of this hotel..?

The android suddenly pipes up with (and is that impatience he hears in its voice?), "There are three points of exit other than the one in the lobby: parking, emergency exit, employee entrance. So, where to?"

_Well._

Maybe having her around is a bit convenient.

—_It_. He means, having _it_ around.

Sigh. This android is messing with his senses and pronouns.


	26. 4-27

4/27: Antidote's side effects

* * *

Once upon a time, a little strawberry-blonde girl looked up at the night sky through her window, and wished. Unclenching her fists that she had somehow forced together in an awkward prayer, she stared at the capsule in her tiny hand, not noticing how her nails had dug into her palms. After a brief glance at the bolt in her door from the corner of her room where she stood, she took a deep breath—

—Pain. Eyes fly open. A sharp intake of breath. The rare times Miyano Shiho goes to bed sober, she wakes up the same way, reliving the feeling of having her body melt and break.

Shiho struggles to catch her breath. She closes her eyes shut and forces herself to take deep breaths—one, inhale, two, three, exhale, one, two, inhale, two, three, exhale, one, two, inhale, two, three, exhale...

The too quick, too loud beating of her heart is yet to calm, but at least she's breathing less frantically now. She opens her eyes, and as expected, there's a line of light coming from her bedroom doorway.

She doesn't need to turn to know that Shinichi is leaning on the door frame, probably holding a mug of coffee—the one she always teases him for, the one with 'World's Greatest Detective' printed in big curly font.

But she looks anyway. And she sees him, holding his tacky mug, smiling at her.

It's a tired smile, but a smile nonetheless.

She sits up, slowly, because her muscles feel like they've gone through hell and back, but she still finds herself returning the smile when she finally does manage to hold herself up.

Shinichi straightens up from leaning lazily on the frame and tosses Shiho a hand towel. With how often this has happened, by now, she could catch it while blindfolded, and she catches it this time, too.

Shinichi opens the door more and leaves the room, waving at her with his back turned. The moment the door clicks close, Shiho chuckles softly, and starts to wipe off the sweat off of her. When she has changed to fresher, more comfortable clothes, she goes out of the room, skips the kitchen, and straight into the study.

And, of course, there he is.

Hogging the most comfortable spot in the room—the reclining lounge chair that doubles as the office chair for the desk in the room—Shinichi swivels his chair to look at her. He tilts his head a bit to point to a spot on the desk in front of him, a little bit to his right, and that's where her perfectly designed mug is. It's the one with 'World's Greatest Scientist' printed in big block letters.

Shiho comes up to the desk and picks up her mug, full of steaming hot coffee. Shinichi has already turned towards the window.

Shiho sits on the second-most comfortable spot in the room, on the arm of the lounge chair Shinichi is hogging. Once there, she blows lightly on the coffee, and then takes a sip. As she looks over the horizon, she feels her body finally relax.

Side-by-side, they await dawn.


	27. 4-28

4/28: Edge of Tomorrow / All You Need Is Kill AU

* * *

The instant Shinichi opens his eyes, he reaches up for the marker by his bedside desk, and writes "50" at the back of his hand.

Today, they take down the Black Organization.

Today, Kudo Shinichi dies.

He doesn't know how it happened, but he still remembers the first time he experienced this day, he still remembers his first death. The first time, after so many twists and turns, encounters he had wished then that he rather not have again, unlikely allies and even more unlikely enemies, he deduces that the server room is somewhere in the center of the building, but only accessible from the top floor. He had rushed then to the stairwell of the floor he had been in, and the instant he opened the door, he was greeted by a bullet to the head.

Then he woke up, back in his bed, on the day they take down the Organization, on the day he died.

He has died forty-nine times more since then, and ever since the fourth time he died, he had taken to writing the number of times he had replayed the day.

Today is his fiftieth retry of this mission. By now he's memorized the events of the day: he wakes up, he gets ready, he eats breakfast with Haibara, Hakase, his mom, his dad and Akai-san, and straight to headquarters they go.

By his third retry of the day, he is able to avoid getting knocked out by the drug Vermouth attempts to inject him with. By his tenth retry, he is able to reach the top floor—just in time to see Haibara getting shot in the head at point-blank range, his own head getting blown right after. It took him twenty-five more retries to be able to locate Haibara before the Organization gets to her first, and fourteen more to make sure they both don't die while they are together, on the run.

That last run, the 49th retry, the two of them manage to extract and send the data from the server room. On the way to the rooftop where a helicopter awaits them for their escape, though, Haibara gets shot by a half-dead Vodka, and Shinichi soon follows her, this time, by the grenade Vodka had thrown at him while smiling.

This retry, he'll be sure they'll be able to vacate the building before Vodka is able to prevent them.

And, he did just that. They're at the rooftop now, without ever having met Vodka, Shinichi just two steps away from boarding the helicopter, when the door to the exit opens, and a bloody Gin comes out of the dark. Gin has a gun trained on him, and Shinichi is already thinking of how they can make their escape trip even faster on his 51st retry—

Then Haibara shouts, "Go!"

The helicopter lifts off of the ground, without her in it.

Shinichi is stunned for a few seconds, and that was all it took for him to be detained by Amuro, successfully preventing him from jumping down the copter. From afar, he sees her body crumpling down on the floor.

When Amuro releases his hold on him, Shinichi doesn't hesitate to take his gun and fire.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The instant Shinichi opens his eyes, he reaches up for the marker by his bedside desk, and writes "51" at the back of his hand.

After breakfast, he knocks out Haibara and locks her in the basement.


	28. 4-29

4/29: Shiho creating an antidote for injured, amnesiac Conan

* * *

When Shinichi woke up, the first thing he sees is gray. The first thing he hears is the beeping of the machines attached to him.

He's lying down on what he can only presume is a hospital bed, looking up at what he thinks would be white ceiling, but with only the lights from the patient monitor and ventilator, he just sees gray.

And then, he remembers.

"Haibara..?"

He looks around and finds no one.

"Haibara?"

He tries to sit up, but an intense pain in his head and stomach brings him back down on the bed.

He doesn't care. He tries again and sits up successfully this time, removing the ventilator mask from his face, the IV drip from his arm, and the sensors for the monitor from his chest.

"Haibara?!"

The flat tone of the machine mixes with the echoes of his grunts as he falls on the floor. He attempts to stand up again, but his legs give out, so instead he crawls, shouting, "Haibara! Where are you?!"

When the door finally opens and the lights turn on, the nurse that had been rushing over the moment they received an alert only finds the small body of a boy named Edogawa Conan face down on the floor in front of her, right hand stretched out as if it had been trying to reach for something right before he lost consciousness.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Shinichi woke up, the first thing he sees is white. The first thing he hears is the beeping of the machines attached to him.

"What..? Where..?"

He looks to the left and he sees an old man, shock evident on his face. Shinichi immediately scoots to the side farther from the man, and asks, "Who..?"

When the old man remains silent, his face showing a range emotions from shocked to confused to what he can only call anguished, he knows something is wrong—wrong with him. He can't help the panic from showing in his voice as he asks, again, "Who are you?!"

Suddenly intense headache prevents him from taking in his surroundings and he can only ask "Where am I?!"

Still, right now, to Shinichi, there's one thing on his mind more important than all the others. He shouts, "Haibara?!" He wills himself to look around the room, and with no traces of Haibara, an ugly feeling in his chest flares up.

His vision blacks out, on and off, and he rests his gaze upon the only other person in the room to quickly assess him. He hopes this old man is at least a neutral party, if not an ally. He can only ask him to go in his stead—for now, because he'll go to her, sooner than soon, for sure—and his small hands crumple the hem of the old man's shirt, as he manages to choke out "... Have to… protect… her..."

A short moment after Shinichi passes out, the old man regains his calm and wipes the sweat off the boy's forehead, tucking him in before he presses the assistance button. He takes off his glasses for a moment before he rubs his eyes, and then the wrinkles on his brow, before he sends a quick message to the woman who had been with him watching over Shinichi just an hour ago.

He gets a reply not even a second after: _Coming._

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When the boy woke up, the first thing he sees is white. The first thing he hears is the beeping of the machines attached to him, together with the quiet murmur of voices.

"What..? Where..?"

The voices stop. He looks to the left and he sees an old man, a hopeful look on his face. Beside him is a woman with short permed brown locks, eyes staring straight into him, face devoid of any expression. They are both wearing lab coats, so he can only assume that they are his doctors, attending to him in what he thinks is a hospital room.

The boy tries to think of anything that can help him fill in the blanks in his current situation, but he finds nothing. His eyes widen, and he hears his heart beat quicker and quicker when he slowly realizes that he can't remember any single thing. His breaths come shallower and shallower, and he attempts to look around the room for anything he can identify, anything that can trigger any memory, but before he can whip his head around for clues, a hand is placed lightly on his shoulder, and he hears a voice telling him, "Breathe."

He looks at the hand on his shoulder and traces it back to the body that owns it, and the source of the voice he had just heard—it's the woman, that woman. Somehow, he calms down a bit, and he does as she said, he breathes.

He looks at her as he focuses on his breathing. There's nothing familiar about her. Not her hair, not her face, not her eyes, not her voice. "You don't remember anything," she says. The certainty in her statement calms him further, and he can feel himself relaxing more and more. Even when he feels he doesn't need to confirm her statement, he nods anyway, to let her know that he's fine now.

Somehow, he knows that she understood his gesture perfectly. She lifts her hand off his shoulder, and the room is suddenly too cold for him. He's still looking at her, though. He finds that she isn't uncomfortable with his blatant staring, and he wonders if all amnesiacs react the same, which is why she's used to it.

"Edogawa Conan," she suddenly says, while still looking straight at him. To the boy, it doesn't ring any bells.

"A-ah, right," the old man speaks, and the boy remembers that there's another person in the room. The old man continues, "Conan-kun, I'm Agasa Hiroshi, your neighbor and friend."

The boy—his name is Edogawa Conan, apparently—looks at him and doesn't make any expression of remembrance. The old man, Agasa, takes it as his cue to continue, "This here is Ai-k—ah! Shiho-kun, this is Shiho-kun. She's a friend of yours, Conan-kun. She's helped us a lot, and she'll help you get better..."

At this, Conan looks at the woman named Shiho, and she just looks at him back.

"... _Shiho_… _Shiho-neechan_..?" Calling her name doesn't sound right, nor does calling her _neechan_... Had he really known this woman before?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Ran-neechan._ Now this rolls off the tongue. As he talks about his day, something he must have done a number of times with Ran-neechan, since he just grows more and more comfortable the more he speaks with her, he feels his body relax—until he senses something is off.

He looks around, and Shiho-neechan is nowhere to be found.

His chest tightens, and he looks around. He doesn't hear Ran asking him if he's alright.

He gets up, out of the chair and runs to the WC—she's not there.

He runs outside, and he instantly spots her talking to two men he doesn't know.

He doesn't know how he feels. He's relieved, he's angry, he's hurt—

Shiho turns and catches him looking and—he's embarrassed.

Then he remembers, he's a kid, right? So it's alright to act like this, right?

He runs up to her, as quick as his short legs can take him, and practically jumps up to her arms. He's a bit giddy when he sees the incredulous look on her face as she opens her arms to catch him. When she catches him, he holds her tight and sneaks a peek at the men she had been talking to, his face wearing what he thinks is a pretty angelic smile to show them just how happy he is right now.

Still, somehow, this feels new. If Shiho-neechan and him were close, why does this feel new? Do they not hug? It wouldn't be that she doesn't like kids because she certainly does—she always dotes on Ayumi-chan. Him, too. After all, he's the only one among the Detective Boys allowed in her lab. She makes him good food, and she gives him novels and books that are actually interesting and not those childish ones. She doesn't make him feel like a kid when they're talking, and she always looks out for him.

In any case, this feels right, so it's probably just a piece of memory he lost. What a pity. He figures he can just do this more often from now on. She's able to catch him perfectly anyway, and just on their first try!

When the men say their goodbyes to Shiho with an unreadable look on their faces, Shinichi resists the urge to stick his tongue out at them. Shiho turns to nod goodbye, though, so his face wouldn't be in their view even if he did.

When they leave, he asks Shiho right away, "Who are they?"

"You're not a kid. Get down from me."

Conan just tightens his hold on her more, as he says, "I _am _a kid! Who are they?"

"Did you tell Ran-san where you are going?"

"I'll explain when we get back. Who are they?"

"My boyfriends."

Shiho is able to peel off an unresponsive Conan off her arms and shoulders. She looks at his incomprehensible expression and chuckles. She taps his cheek just as she stands up, and says, "Just kidding. Wipe that expression of your face and let's get back to Ran-san."

Having snapped out of his shock from the feel of his neechan's finger on his cheek, and then hearing her say what she had just said wasn't true, Conan wails, "Hey, that's not nice!"

Shiho just throws a smirk at him as she slowly starts walking. He catches up, and they walk side-by-side.

Like this, Shiho suddenly explains, "They're your friends, actually."

Ever the curious kid, Conan immediately asks, "Then why did they come for you and not for me?"

Shiho casts him a look, then turns back to look forward. She just says, "Because you don't remember yet, but I do."

"Well, I remember enough. I remember you. I remember the important parts just fine, so whoever and whatever that was must have been unimportant."

He stops walking when he hears his neechan's footsteps stop from beside him. He sees the unimpressed expression on his Shiho-neechan's face so he immediately backtracks his words, "Or, it _is _important, and maybe I'll remember if they actually talk to _me _instead, _you know_, so take me with you next time you talk to them, neechan!"

Shiho smiles a bit, and Conan catches the turned up corners of her mouth before she sets it back when she says, "Maybe."

They get back to walking, slowly, in silence. Conan's mind, though, is bombarded with thoughts. With a light shake of his head, and mouthing a silent "Whatever, I'm a kid!" he lifts his hand up...

When Conan's small hand reaches Shiho's, she stops, again, a while. Conan, somehow, feels embarrassed, again, but he's a kid and this is what kids do, right? He wills his blush to go away, and instead tightens his grip on Shiho's hand.

Shiho lightly flicks his forehead, and he pouts at the silent admonition, but before he can let go completely, her fingers curl against his hands, and he hears her say quietly, "Just… not so tight."

He looks at her and he can make out the faint pink on her cheeks and ears. He chipperly answers, "Ok!"

At the front of the restaurant, Ran is waiting for them, waving them over.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Neechan? What are you doing?"

Conan finds Shiho, her arm over her eyes, head angled up towards the ceiling while leaning back away from her computer.

A bit worried that Shiho had fallen asleep on her chair, Conan approaches her silently, softly calling out, "Neechan?"

Shiho sighs, and replies without looking at him, "I'm awake, just tired."

Conan, noticeably more chipper now, energetically offers the things he had brought in the lab as he proudly announces, "I brought coffee!"

Shiho couldn't keep the smile from her voice when she lightly says, "Little kids shouldn't drink coffee."

Conan doesn't miss a beat as he retorts, "I thought you said I wasn't a kid?"

Shiho just chuckles, saying, "Well, you're short."

"Hey!"

Shiho finally turns to look at him, and he offers her one of the mugs, still pouting. She accepts it, and she tilts her head down a bit, seemingly appreciating the coffee and its aroma. Conan doesn't miss the unfathomable smile that crosses her face, though.

She hasn't even taken a sip when she starts to say, "Hey, Edogawa-kun—"

He cuts her off. "Why don't you ever call me Conan, or Conan-kun?"

She looks at him in surprise, and they stare at each other. It annoys Conan that he can't read her, because there's definitely something there—is this another one of the pieces he lost from his accident? He hates it. He hates it a lot.

It takes her a moment to reply, and when she does, she does not look away. She quietly replies, "... Because that's not you."

Conan still doesn't understand, but he gets the feeling that he's so close to what it is that he wants answers to, so he prods further, "And I'm _Edogawa-kun_?"

She sighs, and, it's clear that Shiho is uncomfortable with this line of questioning. She breaks their eye contact, and complains to her coffee, "_Tantei-kun_, would you listen to me for a bit?"

"No," is Conan's quick answer.

"... Eh?" Shiho couldn't prevent a sound of surprise coming out of her, since she didn't expect that he, of all people, wouldn't want some answers, any kind of answer, out of her.

He explains, "You sound like you're going to say something bad. Don't do it."

A wry smile comes from Shiho, and she says, "I'm not."

The unease in his heart has yet to dissipate, and his instincts are rarely wrong. Conan just continues to stare at her.

Seeing that Conan doesn't intend to let her continue, she continues in a singsong voice, "With you here, I wouldn't dare do anything bad."

Frustrated that his neechan doesn't seem to take him seriously at all, hands clenched into fists, Conan just grits out his suspicion directly, "Are you leaving?"

Shiho looks up from her coffee, all traces of emotion wiped from her face. She looks at him looking at her—the way his eyes narrow a little, the way they shine, the way his lips press together in a straight line, the way his lower lip dips a little to let her know he's biting it, the way his brows are knit together, the way his voice is solid, absolute, as if stating a fact, as if giving a command when he says, "Don't leave me."

Shiho places her coffee on her desk—and Conan's expression sours more when he thinks she doesn't feel the gravity of what he'd just said, that _she can't leave_—and places her hands on his cheeks. Conan's eyes widen a little at this, and he feels his cheeks burn, and he wants to will it to go away, but she's looking at him and he wants to be able to read what she's thinking, right now, and at every moment. In his lost memories, had he been able to? If he regains what he had lost, can he have this, too?

"Idiot," she says as she squeezes his cheeks. "I was about to say, I'm done with the research. I can make you well again."

She retracts her hands from his cheeks, and Conan feels lightheaded. He just says, "Oh."

Shiho crosses her arms on her chest as she says, "No more headaches. No more sudden dizziness. No more shortness of breath."

"That's it?" That's all you wanted to say?

Shiho nods. "Yeah."

Conan's pulse is still racing. It takes him a moment to collect himself, and he assesses her, tries to trust her and her words, even when he has lingering doubts. He's about to nod, to let the topic go, but in a moment of hesitation, he's able to remind himself that he's a kid so it doesn't matter if he asks stupid questions. So, he doesn't nod, and instead looks her straight in the eye and asks her, "You're not leaving?"

She smiles. She only says, "Sticky kid."

When she smiled, he relaxed. The relief is written all over his face even as he complains, grinning, "Shut up! Give me back my feelings!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Shinichi woke up, the first thing he sees is white. The first thing he hears is the beeping of the machines attached to him.

"What..? Where..?"

He looks to the left and he sees Agasa-hakase, shock evident on his face. Shinichi makes an attempt to sit up as he asks, "Hakase..? Why am I here?"

Hakase immediately gets up and hugs the woman beside him, saying, "Ai-kun, it worked..! Ai-kun, you did it!"

Shinichi doesn't know her.

Their eyes meet, and the small smile on her face disappears just for a flash before it's back.

When the professor releases her from his hug, she cuts off the professor before he can say anything more, saying "Miyano Shiho. One of your doctors. A friend of the professor."

The professor bewilderedly looks between the two of them before a look of realization sinks in. Shinichi would have noticed, but he isn't really focusing on anything else right now, other than the woman he doesn't know right in front of him.

"I'll be going now. If there's anything, professor please call me."

The professor just nods, slowly, silently.

Shinichi doesn't know if he has anything to say except, "Thank you..."

When she left the room, somehow, there's a discomfiting feeling at the back of his mind, down to his chest.

He's just tired, maybe.


	29. 4-30

4/30: "What if Shiho was Shinichi's childhood friend?" _(from Mizhera)_

* * *

As Shinichi fawns over his face on the newspaper's front page, someone pulls on his cowlick, and he knows it's finally time to go home.

It's Miyano Shiho, his neighbor and childhood friend, also their classroom representative despite her abrasive personality (_only for you_, she says, _since you're an idiot_). She's a once-in-a-century prodigy, excelling in science and engineering, but Shinichi will never tell her that to her face, since, damn, that woman can be so thick-skinned at times. They once had a little bet going on to see who gets more newspaper features between the two of them, but the professor made them stop once he discovered that Shiho had been pulling consecutive all-nighters to put out more and more inventions. They did stop the bet… but not that Shinichi ever stopped tracking—he's behind by just one more newspaper article now.

Shinichi grimaces. Even as he pats down his hair though, he only says, "Took you long enough." He had been waiting for her to finish her rep duties by the school gates so they can go walk home together, like they've always done. She wordlessly falls into step beside him, like she's always done, and they start walking.

Before they can get outside the school premises though, a soccer ball goes towards them, and Shinichi reflexively kicks it back to the team playing in the field. Shiho chides him, "Showoff."

"I have to have great reflexes! Sherlock Holmes—"

"—I know," Shiho cuts him off before he can start his Holmes spiel.

Shinichi just laughs, fully expecting her to stop him. He says, "Yeah, I know you know. Anyway, Hakase told me you stopped by the bookstore yesterday. What did you get? Were there any new mysteries?

"Oh, I don't know, will you even have time to read a novel when you have all those letters?" Shiho points to the letters in his hands. His grin widens.

"Hah, right? I think I keep on getting more each week!"

Shiho rolls her eyes and just walks faster. _Not cute! _Shinichi smiles even more, _like a dumbass_, Shiho would say. Right before he can continue teasing Shiho, she cuts him off—

"I get more letters than you."

_What..?_ "What?!" _Hakase never told me about this!_

She looks at him and sticks her tongue out, then looks forward and continues walking, as if she had not said anything at all.

Shinichi runs a short while and catches up to her, calling out, "Hey, woman, tell me about it already! Since when? How many? _Who?_ You know I'll figure it all out anyway! Hey, let's have a bet, if I figure it out—"

Suddenly, Shiho stops walking, so Shinichi, too, stops and stares at her. She asks him, "You forgot, didn't you?"

"—Eh..?" Shinichi is genuinely confused, and Shiho sees that on his face. She narrows her eyes, then sighs. Right before she continues walking, just a bit faster than her usual pace, Shinichi catches the slight pout of her lips. "Nothing," is what she says.

"H-hey?" Shinichi scrambles his mind for a second, or two, then gets the answer. He almost shouts it out, "Miyano! I remember: Tropical Land, tomorrow, right?!"

Shiho stops walking. She says, her back turned to him, "And you're paying."

At that Shinichi nervously chuckles. Shiho's not really a small spender, and he tries to remember his balance on his bank account…

He grumbles, "...I'm not the one with patents and gigs to a hundred research labs..."

Shiho whips her head to look at him and narrows her eyes again, and Shinichi takes a step back, quickly backtracking, "Y-yeah! I'm paying; I promised you, after all!"

Shiho smiles.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For Shinichi, the majority of the day passed by like any other day with Miyano—a little bit annoying, a little bit amusing, and definitely not boring.

Somehow, though, Miyano starts shaking while on the line to the rollercoaster. Shinichi hands her his hoodie, and she accepts, with a quiet thanks and an even quieter, "There's something that feels wrong here..."

Shinichi teases how she, devil personified, is scared of heights, even though he knows she's not, just to test for a reaction, but Shiho doesn't even look at him. Shinichi frowns.

Shinichi tries to take her attention off whatever's distressing her by talking about Holmes and rattling off his observations of the people around him. Softly, she says, "Sorry, I'm always like this." Without looking at him, she whispers, "Let's just go home..?"

He just holds her hand and smiles at her, as he pulls her to ride the rollercoaster.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After running into an unexpected case—that Shiho argues is certainly expected given that Shinichi is around—Shinichi is glad that they got to solve it quickly. He's even gladder that, even though Shiho is still not in tip-top shape—her retorts are still lacking their usual barb—she has at least stopped shaking, and had, as usual, helped him with securing the scene, alerting the authorities and delivering his deduction.

Before he can tell Shiho that he had called Hakase over to fetch them, Shiho chuckles and says, "You find those two suspicious, don't you?"

Shinichi blinks once, twice and thrice, before he grins sheepishly. _As usual, Miyano doesn't let anything get past her._

"Then, I'll—"

"We'll go," Shiho affirms, and Shinichi is relieved to know that Shiho is more and more back to her usual self.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Following the two suspicious men in black, Shiho and Shinichi hide in the cover of the building as they watch the two extort money from the CEO of what they heard is a company engaging in gun smuggling.

When Shinichi turns back to discuss with Shiho if they should get the authorities involved as soon as now, he looks at one of the men in black manhandling Shiho and covering her mouth.

"Let her g—!"

A heavy blow to his neck and he's down. He can't move his body and his vision is fading.

"Please, I'll come with you, please, please, just let him go, please—" is all he hears. His last thought: _Don't cry, Miyano._

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When he wakes up, he's face down on the grass, Hakase and a group of guards from the amusement park hovering over him.

"Shinichi? Where's Shiho-kun?"

To that, Shinichi has no answer. For now. _Only for now._

He promises.


End file.
